


I'm in love with your honor, I'm in love with your cheeks.

by Blackwing602



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Drinking & Talking, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Married Life, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 06:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5733706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackwing602/pseuds/Blackwing602
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'“You stubborn woman, I have never stopped loving you from the day we met.” He caught up her hands in his, swallowing them, enveloping them. The stars spun behind him and in his golden eyes.' / Toriel/Asgore post-good ending one shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm in love with your honor, I'm in love with your cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> And I said, "I know it well.  
> That secret that we know that we don't know how to tell  
> I'm in love with your honor, I'm in love with your cheeks  
> What's that noise up the stairs, babe?  
> Is that Christmas morning creaks?"  
> Blood Bank - Bon Iver

There were a lot of new, earthly pleasures to take joy in now that monsters mingled with humankind on the bright, beautiful surface. Monsters had become fairly advanced in and of themselves, but it was always a distant echo from what humankind had already achieved, fragments of objects that trickled their way down to the underground, whispers of rumors translated from mysticism and guesswork. Beaches were one thing – endless shores of white, warm sand and all the pleasant little sea creatures who ducked and swirled beneath their surface. Anime wasn’t real, but there was a whole world more to it than just Kissy Kissy Mew Mew. Different foods, some so delicious and savory the monsters could barely speak, some so wretched they politely sat it to the side.

Toriel had tried to dip her toes in a little of everything the new earth had to offer, but there was one thing she couldn’t bring herself to try, not till Asgore came back one evening with a mysterious brown paper package. Asgore and she had reached an uneasy truce – as rightful king and queen of the underground, it really was their duty to help the monsters adjust to their new world, but being in love again was quite another. They took up in the same house beside Toriel’s school, making a very happy home again. They slept in separate rooms and kept their distance, always holding one another at arm’s length.

But Toriel ached for more. She ached for that companionship, that deep running current of love that had tied them so tightly together once before. Asriel and Chara’s demise had broken her heart, long ago, as she watched her husband degenerate into a wooly coward before her eyes, but things were…. Well, they couldn't have been more different. No longer king and queen of an entire race of people, the pressure was really off. The school was very easy to manage, and Asgore had become a very noble face for the humans to look up to, not to mention a wonderful father to Frisk. Every day, in her little home in the ruins, she had loved him. She had missed him. She wanted days where they could curl up beside the fire again and talk quietly of the world, over brisk hot tea and her latest confections. Few monsters married in the underground… Because it was such a painful, grueling experience, especially for those who could very well live forever.

So when Asgore brandished a bottle of amber-colored liquid that night, after Frisk tottered off to sleep and Papyrus and Undyne said their goodbyes, she took the opportunity and agreed to test it with him. 

“The mayor of Jinmuji gave this to me today,” he explained, carefully pouring the sharp-smelling stuff into tea-cups with his big, steady hands, “It is…. Suntory Whiskey. Humans drink a substance, called alcohol, for recreational purposes, to relax and… Party, I suppose.” He chuckled. “Funny, aren’t they?”

“Funny indeed!” She gave it a sniff and wrinkled her nose. “It smells foul!”

Asgore took a sip, and coughed and sputtered into his tea cup. 

“Are you okay?!” Toriel worried, remembering the buttercups, but Asgore waved her off, laughing. 

“It’s like liquid fire, Tori! It’s so warm…” Steadying himself, the old king took another cautious slurp, but this time he smiled. “It’s a little rough, but… Oooooh.”

Gathering her courage, she took a sip herself. It truly was fire, down her throat and into her belly, smoldering deep within her. The more sips she took, the more she grew to like the taste. Asgore had the good sense to water both their drinks down with tea, and before long they were sitting on the back porch, his shirt thrown off and cast away, her dress askew about her curvy legs, giggling like school children as the night deepened. 

“D-Do you remember…. When Gaster made the teleportion thing-a-ma-jig?” Toriel howled, holding his shoulder to keep herself upright. Asgore tossed his head back and roared with laughter.

“All that goddamn thing do was turn every water sausage in the whole underground…. Into hot cats!” 

“Oh, he was so angry!”

“I know! Such a calm, good man, too. It’s… Such a shame, about the reactor…” His eyes were grave and dark for a moment, which he swept away with another hearty swig of whiskey. Clearing his throat, he looked her deep in her eyes, a familiar, mischievous smile playing on his face. 

“Remember before we had Asriel?”

“What about it?” She asked guardedly.

“When our garden was ours alone, and sometimes, you’d lay in the buttercups… Not wearing a stitch of clothing?” His grin widened, wolfish. She felt her cheeks inflame.

“I remember you’d strip down to the same and kiss me like it was your last,” she breathed, the secret long hidden within her, the happy memories that had preserved her for so long. He nodded in agreement.

“It was so… I thought those days would never end.”

“Everything ends, Asgore,” she said sadly, ears drooping, but he shook his head furiously, golden mane flying.

“You stubborn woman, I have never stopped loving you from the day we met.” He caught up her hands in his, swallowing them, enveloping them. The stars spun behind him and in his golden eyes. “Every day you were gone, I wallowed in misery. I played over every memory in my mind, hoping I could find something to make you happy, something to bring you back. For nearly a year after you left me I searched all over the unground to find you, calling for you. I’m sure Sans told you.”

“He did,” she whispered. “Did he tell you I locked myself so deep so I couldn't be tempted to go back to you? I had to make you learn, I had to make you… Make you see…”

“Oh, I see alright,” he growled. “I’ve hurt the woman I loved for years, and none of the magic in the underground could bring her back to me. But this is a time of rebirth, Tori. To… start anew.”

His eyes were hopeful and searching. The angry, snarling witch inside me wanted nothing more than to tell him to piss off, find another girl to weep over, but her heart knew itself. She needed his love. She needed to love him. 

She needed her husband back.

The whiskey wasn’t giving her anything else to say so she did what her body willed, and kissed him, soft and slow. It was just like how she’d remembered, from so long ago. Toriel expected a sudden rush of feeling, a climatic building within my head, but all was quiet and silent in their reverie, naught but the soft chime of cicadas and whisper of the flowers rustling in the night breeze. 

It didn’t take the whiskey to remind her of why she truly loved him – he silenced the storm of anxiety and howling within her mind and heart. She was always the worrier of the two,, and while he was forgetful, he also forgot things that could use forgetting. The past decade… That could use some forgetting.

… Despite the magic of the night, or what little she remembered when she woke in a king-sized bed and loud snoring she had not heard in a lifetime, it didn’t stop her from screaming, drawing the covers over her naked body, and howling at him to leave. “It’s MY bed, Tori!” He yelped, scrambling naked from the room, and scrambling back in just as soon, because Frisk had been in the hallway. 

Blushing and, as the humans say, hungover, they ate their breakfast and awkward silence, but Frisk had never been so cheerful, and even Flowey ate his food without the usual tantrums. There was no work to be done today, a quiet Sunday morning, so Toriel made the excuse of grocery shopping to get some space and clear her head. Her feet found her to Sans though, who opened the door with a quiet smile. Papyrus cleared up and down the kitchen, apparently trying to recreate something called ‘pizza’, so she and Sans took up in the living room. 

“This is… Oh, it’s so embarrassing!” She squeaked, flushing. “But… I just… I just don’t know who else to go to, who would understand or wouldn’t… Make fun of me…”

“Let me guess,” Sans said knowingly, “You slept with your ex-husband?”

She slammed her glass down. “I hate you.”

“Oooh, I hit the nail right on the head! Or rather, Asgore did-“

“SILENCE!” She shrieked, and a rather innocent potted plant erupted into flames. With a wink, Sans had it back to it’s previous state a minute ago, grinning.

“Toriel, you’re living with him. Of course it would happen. And you were married, a long time.”

“I just… Oh, it was that damn alcohol!” She glowered.

“Drunken words are sober thoughts. Grillby taught me that.”

She gave him that, and couldn’t stop the huge smile coming across her face. “I haven’t felt this happy… In so long.”

“You deserve it,” he murmured, reaching a skeletal hand, cold and hard as ever, to envelop hers. She wondered if she could see a shadow of regret falling across his features, but it was gone before she could track it, and she decided it must have been nothing. Papyrus chose this moment to bring forward to her his latest creation, which was essentially spaghetti on a piece of dough, but she pretended to enjoy it anyway, and besides, it wasn’t bad, with the birds singing and flowers blooming…

… Especially the fresh, quiet bud of love bursting at the seams within her heart.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a headcanon that Undertale is set in Japan - Suntory Whiskey is only in Japan, and Jinmuji is a Japanese city, in case you were wondering.  
> Was that some one-sided Soriel right there naaaaah


End file.
